Chicken Meat the Most Common Route of Campylobacteriosis, New Study Finds

Chicken Meat the Most Common Route of Campylobacteriosis, New Study Finds.

A new study has found that nearly all of the campylobacteriosis cases in nursing home patients recently evaluated were caused by bacteria in animals farmed for meat, in particular chickens and cattle. To read the article, click on:

According to this article in today’s FoodProductionDaily.com, Campylobacter jejuni, which causes more cases of gastroenteritis in the developed world than any other bacterial pathogen, is transmitted to humans mainly through chicken meat.

The study, titled “Tracing the Source of Campylobacteriosis,” and published in the journal PloS Genetics, found that in 57 percent of the cases, the bacteria could be traced to chicken, and in 35 percent of cases to cattle.

It was conducted by U.S. and U.K. researchers and funded by the Higher Education Funding Council of England and the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

The article reporting the study notes that resistance to antibacterials in animals is rising, according to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), meaning that the risk of animal-based food becoming contaminated is higher. EFSA said that antimicrobials are also becoming less effective in fighting human infections, and that Salmonella and Campylobacter, in particular, are becoming increasingly resistant to current antibiotic treatments.